More RNIB Snaps!

As my previous post was so popular (more than 250 views!), I thought I would share a few more snaps from the RNIB photoshoot that I took part in back in January. A few more photos were kindly sent to me which you can view below:

At Salford Quays waterfront with my hair blowing everywhere!

Sitting in the Blue Peter gardens, at MediaCity UK

Tami and I walking over The MediaCity Footbridge

All photos © Mischa Photo Ltd.

Upcoming Events: March - May 2015

Spring is well on its way and I have quite a busy few months ahead which, of course, means the opportunity for more exciting blog posts! Here's what I'll be getting up to in the coming weeks:

Monday, 16th March

30 minute 'equality and diversity' speech and presentation for Cargill; whose staff have been volunteering at Henshaws over the years in a variety of roles from bag-packing to supporting social groups. I was kindly invited to give a presentation on how Henshaws have supported me over the past 2 years and how people can help to support blind or visually impaired employees in the office environment or when out and about.

Tuesday, 24th March

RNIB Group workshop at Judd Street in London, to develop work with children and young people - helping to shape the services that Action and RNIB provide. Parents, children and young people will have the chance to share their experiences. I will be giving a 5 minute speech on the importance of independence and how the Envision campaigning network helped in giving me mine.

Wednesday, 25th March

Visit to Windermere, in the Lake District, to an Action for Blind People event for young people to help present a workshop focused around the Envision campaigning network, that I am currently Co-Chair to. I will discuss how I came up with the name of the network, how it has helped to expand my confidence and independence, develop my interest in Politics and grow my campaigning skills.

Thursday, 26th March

I will be filmed by the Books@Home service, part of Salford Libraries, who deliver audiobooks to me each month free of charge. I enjoy a huge plethora of books and have done so for nearly 2 years now. I will be helping with a short film that will show me receiving and listening to my books, and then give an interview on what the service means to me in terms of accessibility, equality and inclusion. The film will be shared with peers and partners of Salford Libraries to show the importance of the service to those who are visually impaired.

Monday, 30th March
Visit to the University of York to test the accessibility of websites for a student's accessibility study (in the Human-Computer Interaction Research Group). I will be evaluating 6 websites, spending between 40 - 60 minutes on each, using a Mac computer with built-in VoiceOver (my preference!) to undertake regular tests and identify possible problems. 

Thursday, 2nd April

Visit to Madame Tussauds in Blackpool for an accessible hands-on visit of their collection. The staff have kindly arranged a visit for me to have a sighted guide and interactive experience of what they have to offer.

Tuesday, 7th April
'Being Safe Online' module workshop at the Henshaws Resource Centre, in Old Trafford, as part of the TechTalk group. It will be a 70 minute session covering a variety of areas, such as; cyber-bullying, cyber-stalking, trolling, identity theft, sexting, grooming, webcam blackmail and e-mail scams. The session will be interactive with both individual and group discussion and quizzes.

Sunday, 19th April
'Swap With Me' event with First Bus in Bolton, giving the opportunity for blind and partially sighted people to speak directly to bus drivers and staff about their experiences and concerns, as well as the challenges that bus travel can bring. There will also be a session on learning the different types of bus layout, with parked buses in the depot, as well as the chance to sit on the driver's cab and experience things from their point of view. Drivers and staff will be asked to undertake a number of activities including scanning a pass and finding a seat to understand the needs of visually impaired passengers.

Thursday, 23rd April
Visit to the Manchester Art Gallery, with the Henshaws Art Galleries and Meseums group, for an audio described talk and tour of the 'Eastern Exchanges: East Asian Craft and Design' exhibition. The show features over 1,500 years of the rich craft heritage of Japan, Korea and China with exhibits ranging from magnificent court treasures to masterpieces by contemporary makers. It will include historic works from Manchester's collection which have not been exhibited for over 30 years!

Saturday, 9th May
Collection event for Guide Dogs at Tesco Extra in Irlam.

'Election! Britain Votes' Exhibition at the People's History Museum

Today I visited the 'Election! Britain Votes' exhibition at the People's History Museum in Manchester, as part of the Art Galleries & Museums group based at Henshaws. The exhibition highlights over 100 years of elections, from 1900 to 2010, with the exhibits evolving in the build-up to the 2015 campaign.

Audio description was provided by Anne Hornsby of Minds Eye Description Services, joined alongside Chris Burgess who shared vast knowledge of each object and poster from every election over the past 100 years. Josh Butt made the arrangements for the day with Mary Gifford, group leader, organising the event.

The exhibition space is divided into three areas; the history of previous elections containing various promotional campaign posters and objects (from 1900 with Lord Salisbury winning the election right up to 2010 with David Cameron), a collection of materials from the current 2015 campaign for each participating party, and information about voting; how to vote, who can vote, forms of government, our system, the counting process, the election night, and so on.

Our visit began in the first section of the exhibition focusing around a plethora of historic campaign posters, pamphlets, leaflets, comic strips, newspaper articles and other items of propaganda. A multi-coloured line chart featured across the walls, depicting the popularity of the parties that took part in each election, and it was interesting to see the rise of Labour and the fall of the Liberals - especially since they were so popular in the early 1900's. The display even included Harold Wilson's pipe and Michael Foot's glasses!

Another interesting aspect was observing how advertising in posters has evolved throughout the century, yet the marketing strategies and themes within them have remained very similar over time.

The next area we visited was the voting information area; complete with a voting booth and ballot box! The exhibits here were designed very much like a board game, with cartoonish graphics and bubbles of information generated into a colourful, educational flowchart. Topics covered the different forms of government, our government and system, the Lords and Peers, how elections are called, campaign spending and spending limits, who can vote, how to vote, what happens when the polls close, voting systems and election night.

I found this part especially interesting as I learned many new things. I had no idea that the Queen can vote (though she tends not to, choosing to remain neutral), MPs can vote (usually for themselves!) and homeless people can vote - even though they don't have a fixed address. I also found it fascinating to learn more about the counting process when polls close, how to run as a candidate and form a new government!

The third and final area housed various items pertaining to this year's election, divided into sections for each contending party; The Labour Party, The Conservative Party, Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party (SNP), United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), The Green Party, and Others (Sinn Fein, Alliance Party, Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), and so on). It features a flat screen television playing news footage related to the upcoming election and a note board where visitors can write which qualities they would like in a Prime Minister, which areas they would like to see changed, etc. 

This section also houses a replica of the famous black door of Number 10, Downing Street, with a selection of props to use for a photo including hats, ties, tails and sashes! I had my photo taken with a St. Trinian's-style hat and a sash that read 'Votes for Women'. The area will continue to grow and expand as the election approaches. 

I had a wonderful time at the exhibition today and I would like to say thank you to Mary Gifford, Anne Hornsy, Chris Burgess and Josh Butt for a lovely outing! I would recommend that anyone visit who has an interest in the subject of the election; it's informative, educational and fun! You can find out more by visiting the People's History Museum website here.

Volunteer for Guide Dogs

Over the course of the past few months, with being fully-qualified alongside my Guide Dog, Tami, I have quickly become an active member of the volunteer team at my local Guide Dogs branch of Salford.

I originally signed up to be a volunteer during the Summer of last year after undertaking a two week work placement at the Guide Dogs Training Centre in Atherton, Leigh, as part of the Skillstep course at Henshaws, with my information and references approved in October. I received all of the items I needed within my roles but was advised not to start until I had trained, qualified and settled in with Tami first.

Along with my general volunteering role, attending collection events at local supermarkets and other stores, I am also a Collection Box Co-ordinator. Within this role I identify suitable shops to place boxes where I think they will be popular and generate kind donations from the public. When a box has been placed, I take note of its individual number to track all boxes on a large sheet and the amount of money they raise each month. I also ensure they are safely chained to the counter and have my contact details and the Salford branch details on a sticker underneath.

When it comes to emptying a box which has become rather full over the duration of the month, I take it home, count it up in sections pertaining to each coin type, and give a 'thank you' slip, provided in a book by Guide Dogs, with the total amount to the shop it has come from - as well as providing the date when I'll be banking the amount. I have a Guide Dogs bank book and I have to keep track of all of the money I collect from each box. I will then travel to Eccles, where my nearest HSBC bank is, to cash in the amount to the Guide Dogs account and have my bank book stamped. To finish the process, I send off the top copy of each page in my bank book to the Treasurer of the Salford branch.

So far, I have raised well over £100 from my boxes since I officially began my role in January and have also helped to collect at a local Morrisons store in Eccles. I will be helping with collections again in May - this time at a Tesco store in Irlam.

I've been enjoying my time as a volunteer for Guide Dogs tremendously so far and am really pleased to be able to give back to this fantastic charity who have given so much to me already. I now have the independence to go anywhere I want knowing that Tami will keep me safe from obstacles, obstructions and oncoming traffic and I am thrilled to have to opportunity to show my appreciation and support of the life-changing work they do.

Henshaws Annual Review 2013-14

The Henshaws Annual Review for 2013-14 is now available to read online!

I'm featured in the volunteering section helping to give an insight into what it's like to be a Henshaws volunteer, why I decided to donate my time to the charity on a weekly basis and what I get out of the opportunities I receive:

Could you support Henshaws by becoming a Volunteer?

Many volunteers, of all ages, give their time to Henshaws. In fact in 2013-14 we had an amazing 232 active volunteers! We wouldn't be able to run our services without them.

We always need volunteers to help across our services in all our centres. We welcome all levels of experience and in return we offer interesting and rewarding activities, a sense of achievement and fun.

Kim is a service user in our Community Services in Manchester. She started volunteering this year and has supported the Marketing team in a whole host of tasks including writing blog posts and press releases, working on social media, talking at events and doing bucket collections.

"Henshaws has been an amazing support to me and I wanted to give something back, to say thank you for giving me my independence. It makes me feel really positive and optimistic about my future and it's always nice to see other people's generosity. It's also been great to learn new skills, which I'm learning all the time as a volunteer!

I really recommend other people get involved. It's so rewarding, you get to meet lots of new, friendly people and experience many exciting opportunities. I've loved being able to use my writing skills to help out but there are so many different ways you can help, from driving, supporting IT classes and doing sports activities, to running social groups and helping out at events. Just get involved!"

To find out more about our current volunteer opportunities call Christine Turner on 01423 541558, e-mail christine.turner@henshaws.org.uk or go to www.henshaws.org.uk/get-involved/volunteering/

You can read the full Henshaws Annual Review either in PDF or Word formats.